Response to Thomas Friedman of the New York Times

I have never liked Thomas Friedman. He is quick and liberal with his views and comments sitting in his ivory tower far away, but since his stint as NYT bureau chief ending in 1988 he has not had to face and probably never did face what Israel faces every single day.

As former ambassador Yoram Ettinger wrote in 2022, "Friedman’s pro-Palestinian stance dates back to his active involvement, while at Brandeis University, in the pro-Arafat radical-left Middle East Peace Group and Breira organizations. It intensified during his role as the Associated Press’ and New York Times’ reporter in Lebanon. There, he played down Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas’s rape and plunder of Lebanon, and their collaboration with Latin American, European, African and Asian terrorists, while expressing his appreciation of the PLO’s protection of foreign journalists in Beirut (who responded in kind)."

In his NYT opinion article this week,, Friedman wrote that he has "no doubt that the U.S. president will arm the Israeli president [Isaac Herzog] with the message – with sorrow, anger – that when the interests and values of a U.S. government and an Israeli government diverge this much, a reassessment of the relationship is inevitable." Friedman added that the White House considers Israel's government's actions "unprecedented radical behavior – under the cloak of judicial reform."

Continuing, he wrote that "to get just a whiff of the tension between the U.S. and this Israeli cabinet... consider that hours after Biden mentioned to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria just how 'extreme' some of Netanyahu’s cabinet members were, one of the most extreme of them all, the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, told Biden to butt out — that 'Israel is no longer another star in the American flag.'"

It is amazing how things catch on and then expand and grow and it is almost impossible to stop them. So it is with Smotrich and Ben Gvir. They have at times said things they should have kept to themselves in their initial naiveté as ministers, but I have been aware of a maturing as the burden of their responsibilities weighs down on them and they substitute action for words..

Friedman, never really a great friend of Israel in my view, quickly picked up on this and expanded on it. Obviously he has the ear of Biden, hardly a genius.

Thomas Friedman is the “analyst” who said that Assad is a good man and an ophthalmic surgeon that will bring hope to his country. He also said that the misnomered Arab Spring is a movement of young democracy-loving internet generation Arabs. So it appears that Friedman can often be wrong, never mind misinterpretation.

Who feeds Friedman his “information”? Both Friedman and the State Department feed the same anti-Netanyahu biased media. Of course the State Department has never been pro-Israel, to say the least.

I wonder if it has occurred to Friedman that most of the Jewish population of Israel voted for Netanyahu and his coalition and for judicial reform! How can one deny that? I also wonder if it isn’t Friedman who puts ideas into Biden’s addled brain when it comes to Israel.

So Israel will have to wait out the next eighteen months until Biden and his Obamaniks are no longer in power, when hopefully, the USA, the world and Israel will be free of the malign views and policies of Biden, the Democrats and Friedman will once more be confined to the irrelevant pages of the New York Times, and Israel can continue to build and grow and develop its growing relationships with the Arab world. Of course a potential war with Iran and its surrogates is waiting in the wings.

It is my considered opinion that what lies behind Biden refusing to meet with Netanyahu is his fear of him. In his confused mind he still remembers well that Netanyahu had the supreme courage to address the US Congress against the express wishes of then President Obama and disagree, correctly it turns out, against Obama's determination to make an agreement with and support Iran in its nuclear ambitions and abandon the United States' allies in the Middle East and basically throw them under the bus. Biden is attempting the same thing and he knows Netanyahu will oppose him, and the poor man, the powerful President of the United States and all, cannot take that.

Friedman is so overwhelmed with his own importance and misguided feeling of how correct he always is, that these insights are beyond him. In addition, he wouldn't dare criticise Biden or endanger his relationship with the President of the United States.

But - History often repeats itself.

On June 22 1982, Joe Biden was a Senator from Delaware and confronted then Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin during his Senate Foreign Relations committee testimony, threatening to cut off aid to Israel. Begin forcefully responded,

“Don’t threaten us with cutting off your aid. It will not work. I am not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them. And, when necessary, we will die for them again, with or without your aid.”

Senator Biden reportedly banged on the table with his fist, and Begin retorted,

“This desk is designed for writing, not for fists. Don’t threaten us with slashing aid. Do you think that because the US lends us money it is entitled to impose on us what we must do? We are grateful for the assistance we have received, but we are not to be threatened. I am a proud Jew. Three thousand years of culture are behind me, and you will not frighten me with threats. Take note: we do not want a single soldier of yours to die for us.”

Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the leader of the Revisionist movement, which both Begin and Netanyahu emanate from, noted in 1940 that,

“We hold that Zionism is moral and just. And since it is moral and just, justice must be done, no matter whether Joseph or Simon or Ivan or Ahmed agree with it or not.”

The same applies today as it ever has. Soon Biden will be gone, unlamented I might add, but Israel will still be there stronger than ever, moral and correct, and the leftists protesters, hiding under patriotism and self-righteousness, but definitely anti-democracy, will also have settled down.

David Herschis chairman of SAIPAC, The South African Israel Public Affairs Committee, Cape Town.